Food & Dining

The distillery business is booming in Colorado. Above, the Montanya Distillery in Crested Butte. (Provided by Montanya Distillery)

Less than a decade ago, not a single distillery called Colorado home. Now, there are dozens — the state has issued 41 licenses, although not all of those official stamps of approval have yet turned into distilleries, and some that have opened have since shuttered.

Either way, it's a booming, albeit small, industry.

The first week in April the state's distilleries will have a coming-out party, when the American Distilling Institute, the trade association for the craft-distillery industry, holds its annual conference in Denver, marking the first time the association has held the conference in a place other than Kentucky or Oregon.

Much of the action revolves around technical presentations for distillers, but DSTILL (dstill.co), a program from the Colorado Distillers Guild (coloradodistillersguild.com, coloradodistillers@gmail.com), is hosting at least one big party for the public.

If the microdistillery movement grabs you, this is your kind of event.

On Wednesday, April 3, check out "The Showcase" at the McNichols Civic Center Building (144 W. Colfax; tickets are available at the DSTILL link, above, or call the Colorado Distillers Guild at 720-263-0332). Drop $40, and from 6 to 9 p.m. sample small-batch hooch from a wide variety of distillers, including many from Colorado. In many cases, the distillers themselves will be there to chat about what they do and how they do it.

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"It's a way for the public to get in tune with what ADI is bringing into town, and for people coming to Denver to see what the Colorado public is doing to support craft distilling and cocktails," said Rob Masters, president of the Colorado Distillers Guild.

Eat Denver is involved, too, with local restaurants serving small plates. Cocktails? You bet. In addition to the booze samples, you get a coupon for one craft cocktail — the place will be packed with top Colorado bartenders, slinging drinks. Still thirsty? Additional drinks are only $4. After the tasting, the Colorado Distillers Guild takes over, from 9-11, with more cocktails. Good times.

Pardon my single-mindedness, but I've got to stick with distilling for just one more shot. Just last week Woody Creek Distillers (woodycreekdistillers, 970-279-5110) in Basalt started shipping its first batches of booze to liquor stores around the state. Get used to seeing the vodka at your Friendly Neighborhood Hooch Dispensary — these people dropped way more than your mortgage on stills, meaning they will be able to produce huge quantities of booze. And in this case, at least, quantity does not align with inferiority. The team grows its own potatoes, and uses all of them in the production of its vodka. No other distillery in the country does that, said Mark Kleckner, one of the owners.

"We are doing pure potato," he said. "We could have done corn or rye, and blended, but we wanted to keep it pure and make the best potato vodka in the world."

Last fall's harvest turned into enough for 6,000 cases of vodka. Next year, Woody Creek hopes to up that to 10,000 cases. In addition, they are making whiskeys, which won't be available until they have aged in barrels for a few years. And in the fall they have contracted with fruit growers across the Western Slope for apples, pears, peaches and more, to produce brandies and eau de vies. Cheers!

Let's get back to the food before it's too late — booze + empty stomach doesn't usually lead to good things. Fill up on raw ostrich, if you dare, at TAG Raw Bar (tagrawbar.com, 303-996-2685, 1423 Larimer St., Suite 010) in Larimer Square. I visited the place a few weeks ago to check out the new menu, and was intrigued by the ostrich. I've eaten a lot of oddities over the years, but never raw ostrich. The thin slices of the bird, cut by Hawaiian wild-man Shaun Motoda, had the texture of sushi-grade tuna, and carried a mild flavor — both good things. The rest of the new menu is a lot of fun, too.

Finally, on Monday finalists for the James Beard Awards, and a couple of Coloradans made the cut. Bravo, Jennifer Jasinski, the chef/owner of Rioja, Euclid Hall and Bistro Vendome in Denver for being a finalist for Best Chef, Southwest. And bravo, Frasca Food and Wine in Boulder for Outstanding Wine Program. Let's bring home some trophies in May, when the winners are announced in New York City. OK?

Missy Franklin, Jenny Simpson, Adeline Gray and three other Colorado women could be big players at the 2016 Rio OlympicsWhen people ask Missy Franklin for her thoughts about the Summer Olympics that will begin a year from Wednesday in Rio de Janeiro, she hangs a warning label on her answer.